This is a blog about the use of emerging technologies to boost the governance of public procurement. It used to be a blog on EU law, with a focus on free movement, public procurement and competition law issues (thus the long archive of entries about those topics). I use it to publish my thoughts and to test some ideas. All comments are personal and in no way bind any of the institutions to which I am affiliated and, particularly, the University of Bristol Law School. I hope to spur discussion and look forward to your feedback and participation.

I have just read the interesting paper by Z Engin & P Treleaven, 'Algorithmic Government: Automating Public Services and Supporting Civil Servants in using Data Science Technologies' (2019) 62(3) The Computer Journal 448–460, https://doi.org/10.1093/comjnl/bxy082 (available on open access). The paper offers a very useful, but somehow inaccurate and slightly incomplete, overview of data science automation being deployed by governments world-wide (ie GovTech), including the technologies of artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), big data, behavioral/predictive analytics, and blockchain. I found their taxonomy of GovTech services particularly thought-provoking.

Source: Engin & Treleaven (2019: 449).

In the eyes of a lawyer, the use of the word ‘Government’ to describe all these activities is odd, in particular concerning the category ‘Statutes and Compliance’ (at least on the Statutes part). Moving past that conceptual issue—which reminds us once more of the need for more collaboration between computer scientist and social scientists, including lawyers—the taxonomy still seems difficult to square with an analysis of the use of GovTech for public procurement governance and practice. While some of its aspects could be subsumed as tools to ‘Support Civil Servants’ or under ‘National Public Records’, the transactional aspects of public procurement and the interaction with public contractors seem more difficult to place in this taxonomy (even if the category of ‘National Physical Infrastructure’ is considered). Therefore, either additional categories or more granularity is needed in order to have a more complete view of the type of interactions between technology and public sector activity (broadly defined).

The paper is also very limited regarding LawTech, as it primarily concentrates on online dispute resolution (ODR) mechanisms, which is only a relatively small aspect of the potential impact of data science automation on the practice of law. In that regard, I would recommend reading the (more complex, but very useful) book by K D Ashley, Artificial Intelligence and Legal Analytics. New Tools for Law Practice in the Digital Age (Cambridge, CUP, 2017).

I would thus recommend reading Engin & Treleaven (2019) with an open mind, and using it more as a collection of examples than a closed taxonomy.

Thanks to the UK’s Procurement Lawyers’ Association (PLA) and in particular Totis Kotsonis, on Wednesday 6 March 2019, I will have the opportunity to present some of my initial thoughts on the potential impact of complex technologies on procurement governance.

In the presentation, I will aim to critically assess the impacts that complex technologies such as blockchain (or smart contracts), artificial intelligence (including big data) and the internet of things could have for public procurement governance and oversight. Taking the main risks of maladministration of the procurement function (corruption, discrimination and inefficiency) on which procurement law is based as the analytical point of departure, the talk will explore the potential improvements of governance that different complex technologies could bring, as well as any new governance risks that they could also generate.

The slides I will use are at the end of this post. Unfortunately, the hyperlinks do not work, so please email me if you are interested in a fully-accessible presentation format (a.sanchez-graells@bristol.ac.uk).

The event is open to non-PLA members. So if you are in London and fancy joining the conversation, please register following the instructions in the PLA’s event page.